Many people suffer from cardiovascular diseases. Stroke and myocardial infarction rank among the most frequent causes of death due to cardiovascular diseases. The causes are blocked vessels and the resulting insufficient blood supply of vital organs and tissue. Surgeries are usually the last resort and, at the same time, the start of a new, safe and hopefully healthier life. In this article, you get to know more about the mechanism of action, the medical application as well as the possible side effects of anticoagulants.

Yes, hello! I’m Joseph Alpert with “Introduction to Cardiology”. Today, we are going to do Part 6 which is the second in the series of Cardiovascular Pharmacology. The most important thing to remember in Cardiovascular Pharmacology is what disease are we dealing with or rather what diseases are we dealing with. Well, there’s one disease that’s exceedingly common in the world. It’s relatively rare in countries without very much economic power, but in countries with considerable economic growth and development, this disease becomes increasingly common. So, what is the leading cause of death in the world? Is it Alzheimer’s disease? Is it accidents? Is it cancer? Well, let’s think about that for a moment. In fact, it’s none of the above. Many millions of people are affected by this disease. This disease is atherosclerosis - hardening of the arteries in the layman’s term in English and it causes more deaths than all of the previously mentioned diseases. Alzheimer’s, accidents and cancer put together actually do not equal the number of people who die from the complications of atherosclerotic disease. In fact, in the United States, one in three deaths is the result of atherosclerotic disease and there’s one death every 30 seconds in the US from this disease. Now, it affects different organs, it affects most commonly the heart causing heart attacks or myocardial infarctions. It can cause sudden death and frighteningly, the first manifestation of atherosclerosis of the coronary disease is often sudden death. In cardiology, we refer to it as coronary artery disease because those are the arteries affected that lead to myocardial infarction or heart attack and the abbreviation CAD for “Coronary Artery Disease” is frequently used. It is the number one killer in the United States and it is now the number one killer in the...